A Rose by Another Name
by dreamsandbeyond
Summary: A female super solider becomes lost in time. How does she cope when presented with her predecessor, Steve Rogers, the man who started it all? Can she handle her inner war while a real one rages on across Europe?


Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Birds were chirping and her head was killing her. She squinted up at the light coming through the canopy of the trees.

Things had gone wrong very quickly. The last thing she remembered was an explosion taking place which would explain her waking up on the forest floor more than a bit disoriented and confused. She slowly sat up and looked around here. Immediately, she noticed she was not in the same location as to where she had been when the blast had hit.

It was starting to seem like she had bitten off more than she could chew with this mission. Part of her task was to monitor a group of highly destructive terrorists; terrorists that seemed to be nowhere in sight along with their building of operations. The most disturbing fact was that none of the intel that she had been gathering over the past few days had led her to believe that they were building a bomb of any sort.

Given that she had ended up in a completely different location than where she started and the fact that she hadn't been too close to the origin point of the detonation, she guessed that the explosion had affected a large area. Although looking around the area she was in, it didn't look like a large explosion had washed through it. It was another startling fact that was starting to cause more than a small amount of concern to build within her. She didn't like how things weren't adding up.

She shook off all the questions that were beginning to form in her mind. She had to focus. The best thing for her to do now was get into contact with her contractors and regroup. Currently, she was in a forest in the middle of nowhere. She needed to get to civilization if she wanted to have any hope of salvaging the situation. Before she could do that however, she needed to assess her condition.

It was fortunate that she had survived with relatively minor injuries. Taking full survey of herself, she had a few scrapes along with what seemed to be a sprained left wrist. She didn't have much on her in terms of medical supplies given that she had been hit by the blast on her way back to her camp so she was going to have to make do with her untreated cuts and wrist. Luckily, the few items she did have in her backpack had survived and remained relatively undamaged. Unfortunately, she couldn't say the same for her wireless signal.

For whatever reason, she couldn't connect to the proper satellites and get her navigation and other software online. She humphed and fiddled with them for a little bit before deciding that it was a lost cause. Whatever was the matter would take far too long to figure out with what she had at her disposal.

She slowly got up off the ground and gathered her things, brushing dirt and debris from her clothes as she went. It was time to get moving, she didn't have time to waste. As always with missions like these, she brought paper maps and a compass just in case her GPS fell through. The problem was she had no idea where she was. The best she could do was estimate based on where she had made her camp and where the site of interest was. That would have to be good enough for now. According to the map, the closet town was twenty miles to the west.

She signed as she looked up the sky. She estimated that it was about one o'clock in the afternoon. She would have to move at a brisk pace if she wanted to get anywhere by nightfall. Of course, even if she moved fast it would depend on if she was going in the right direction. She snorted. Standing around debating and worrying about things she had no control over weren't going to get her to her destination. 'It's gonna be a long twenty miles,' she thought as she moved out towards the western direction.

Two hours later and her situation hadn't changed. She was walking on the blind hope that she wasn't too far off where she had estimated. If worse came to worst, she would just end up walking in the western direction for another day or until she found some type of landmark, preferably a river. She knew how to survive in the wilderness with limited resources so that wouldn't be a problem. Truly, her issue was that she needed to report what had happened ASAP. She had checked her wireless signal a few more times but with no luck. Things were starting to get irritating, but she didn't have many options. So she kept on walking, making sure to keep on alert in case there was something unfriendly out there.

Another hour went by before her ears picked up the telltale signs of a vehicle. Maybe her luck was turning around, she thought as she rushed towards the sound. It sounded like they were moving pretty fast. She broke through the trees onto a path that looked like it was used only every hundred years or so. Calling it a road would be a bit too generous.

She looked down the path to see two old jeeps driving towards her about a little less than a mile out. She frowned as she waved them down. The build of the jeeps suggested that they were quite old although they looked to be in somewhat good condition. That sent a small alarm bell off in her head. As they got closer, she could see that there were seven men between both vehicles. It a bit unexpected to see a group of people all the way out here, but perhaps they were returning from a hunting trip of some sort. Hopefully, she could hitch hike a ride with them to the nearest town without too much trouble.

Her plans went to hell as soon as the first jeep pulled up.

The man riding shot gun in the first jeep immediately stood up and aimed a handgun at her head.

"Who are you?" he asked. She blinked as she slowly brought her hands up in the air. This just wasn't her day it seemed. She took a minute to look at all of the men between the two jeeps. One thing that struck her immediately was what they were wearing. They all seemed to have some type of U.S. army uniform on although they were severely outdated. That much she was sure of. One of the other men in the second jeep had on a well-worn Captain American costume. That alone was very strange without even taking into consideration what the others were wearing. The other thing she found odd was that the man pointing a gun at her had a Brooklyn accent. They were in the middle of the Belgium wilderness.

What the hell was going on here?

"I'm just trying to get to the nearest city. I'm a bit lost." She kept her voice calm and low. She also tried to make herself look as non-threatening as possible. The other men were all looking at her intently, some with looks of disbelief on their face as she answered. The small alarms that had been ringing in her head had turned into full on dread. What she thought had been her luck turning around had in fact been just the icing on the cake for a botched mission.

"Lost?" He said, sounding incredulous. "Look lady, I don't know who you think you're fooling with that line, but it sure ain't me. Now, who are you and what are you doing out here?" His tone got colder with the last question. He was outright glaring at her and the gun was kept level with her head. If she wasn't worried before, now would be the time to start worrying.

'What the hell have I gotten myself into', she thought as her frown turned even sterner and her body tensed for a fight. Her instincts were screaming at her that things were about to get ugly.

She just hoped she got out of this without any bullet holes.


End file.
